OnePlus Nord N200 5G review: You get what you pay for By Engadget

OnePlus made a name for itself with flagship level phones at budget friendly prices, but in recent years that focus on affordability has been reserved for the company's newer noodling. The original word was a compelling sub 500 phones with a fast screen and decent cameras. Subsequent additions to the series were similarly intriguing. The company's latest is the word n200 5g, which offers 5g support and a 90hz screen for just 240. At that price. It seems like a better buy than our current favorite, affordable phones like the Pixel 4a and the iPhone SE, but many of OnePlus promises come with big asterisks, and it's not as good as a steel, as it seems, OnePlus has done a decent job, making its noodling look and feel more expensive than they are.

The word n205g has a dense sturdy, build a modern all-screen front and a nice matte finish on its plastic back. I also like the subtle, attractive blue gradient on the rear. This phone feels like it should cost hundreds more, and it certainly has more flair than the Pixel 4a. Unlike Google's affordable handset, though the Borden 200 has its fingerprint sensor, embedded in the power button along the right edge. Now I've gotten used to placing my finger in the middle of the phone's rear and then hitting the power button to see notifications.

So I actually found this placement annoying every time I want to see my lock screen. I'd have to use an unrolled finger to click the power button to see the time. Given this larger 6.49-inch screen, it wouldn't be fair to compare the n200's weight and dimensions against smaller, affordable phones like the Pixel 4a and the iPhone SE 2020, but just so you know at 189 grams or 6.67 ounces and 8.3 mm or 0.33 inches thin. This is a slim but somewhat heavy phone. It's also rated ipx2 for water resistance.

So you don't have to worry about rain, ruining your phone, that's a low splash proof rating, but it's still better than the Pixel 4a, which has none another advantage. The north n200 has over the Pixel 4a at least on paper, is that its 6.49-inch full HD plus screen refreshes at 90 hertz. Meanwhile, Google's phone has a 5.8 inch OLED that runs at a slower, 60 hertz. Despite that, I still prefer the 4a screen, largely due to the fact that the n200 uses an LCD panel in general pictures and videos. Looks fine on the word and scrolling.

My feeds were indeed smooth, but I missed the colors and contrast levels on an OLED. The fact that OnePlus was able to include a triple camera system on a 240 phone is a pleasant surprise. The 13 megapixel main sensor is accompanied by a 2 megapixel macro lens and a 2 megapixel monochrome, one, presumably for better artificial both effects. While I can appreciate the usefulness of those cameras in specific situations, I still think a wide angle option would be more helpful to most people with the cameras that you do get on the n200, though you pretty much get what you paid for all the photos. I took look dull, especially compared to the same shots taken with the Pixel 4a nights capes were blurry and noisy, and OnePlus night mode did little to improve quality.

The monochrome lens did seem to help with portrait mode pictures of flowers. Turning out nicely and having accurate both, I tried to snap a cute pup at a ROG park with the word and the photos all turned out. Blurry the front camera is technically better than any of the ones on the rear, thanks to its 16 megapixel Sony, mix sensor and better bigger aperture, but OnePlus ruins it with built-in face editing software. The result is selfies that are oddly pink and smooth, not nicely, but any did someone smear Plasticine. All over your face way.

You can turn this off, but be warned is turned on by default, including in video and portrait modes. Frankly, even after I disabled the filter, it still felt like some sort of face tuning was happening, and my selfies looked a bit blurry though the Pixel 4a only offers a single rear camera, it's still superior to the n200, delivering crisp colorful pictures, even in low light. One of the biggest reasons the word is cheaper than the likes of the Pixel 4a is its snapdragon 480 processors, it's on the low end of Qualcomm's mobile CPU portfolio, and certainly not as speedy as the Pixel 4a snapdragon 730g. That plus Google's clever software tuning makes the 4a feel as fast as a flagship phone. Meanwhile, Lenore n200 suffers from lag here and there scrolling, my apps drawer or shopping on Instagram, was smooth, as were my many rounds of League of Legends wild rift, but often the phone stalled.

When I jump between the camera and other apps snapping too many portrait mode photos in a row also caused the n200 to hang. I love to blame this entirely on a slow CPU, but there are some small ways in which OnePlus also made its own phone feel sluggish. While I love how clean the companies are on oxygen, OS 11 is and how similar it is to pixel UI certain animations take longer to trigger and make the word n200 feel less responsive. For example, swiping in from the edge of the screen to go back not only requires dragging your finger a little longer of a distance, but also has a slight pause before the phone recognizes the action. Similarly swiping up from the home page to see your app drawer just isn't as quick as it is on pixels the n200 heavy haptic feedback.

Also feels less snappy than on most other android phones. OnePlus says the word's battery is everlasting and, yes, that's clearly hyperbole, but the n200 5000 William hour cell did feel like it lasted forever. It took a whopping 17 hours and 20 minutes to drain the phone on our video run down test, that's about 5 hours longer than the Pixel 4a and the iPhone SE. It also beat the galaxy s21 which notched about 15 and a half hours in daily use. I never felt worried about the n200 running out of juice, though the n200 supports 18 watt fast charging after 13 minutes on the 25 watt charger.

It only got back up to 28 still fast. Charging is a rare feature in phones at this price point. So it's nice to have another bonus is 5g connectivity thanks to its snapdragon 480 CPUs CPU's, built-in x51 5g modem. The word n200 can theoretically hit up to 2.5 gigabits per second download speeds, but note that this device only supports sub 6 and not millimeter wave 5g, since the n200 is exclusive to T-Mobile in the US. This isn't a huge deal as a carrier has yet to build out a millimeter wave network, but it does add an asterisk to that whole 200 phones with 5g support deal for less than 250 dollars.

The word n200 offers some impressive specs on paper. Things like a 90hz screen, 5g connectivity, a triple camera system and a 5 000 William hour battery are rarities at this price and make the phone seem like a steal in actuality, though most of those highlights are better. On paperer than in real life pay a hundred dollars more, and you'll get an almost flagship level phone in the Pixel 4a, which has an excellent camera, great performance and a nice OLED display it may not refresh as quickly or last as long, but it'll serve you well. If you can hold off a little longer, you might want to wait till August when we expect the next of Google's affordable handsets to be launched. For now, the word n2005g is really only for die hard OnePlus fans who want a 90hz screen in a super, long, lasting 5g phone for cheap for in-depth reviews of android phones, iPhones laptops, wearables and everything under the world of consumer technology.

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Source : Engadget